Candidate Profile: John McCain

John Mccain on Health Care

John McCain believes that controlling costs is key to making health care more affordable, saving Medicare and Medicaid and protecting health benefits for retirees. He sets down three primary goals: paying only for quality care, offering diverse insurance choices responsive to individual needs, and restoring a sense of personal responsibility. He advocates market solutions, such as allowing companies to provide insurance nationwide. He believes individuals should have a variety of plans to choose from and would offer tax credits and health savings accounts to help pay for them. He favors allowing safe prescription drugs to be imported and more generic drugs to be on the market to control drug costs.

Health Insurance: Private/Government

• Provide a variety of insurance choices – nationwide and across state lines -- for people to choose from. The policies would be portable, following the individual, not the job.
• Offer tax credits of $2,500 ($5,000 for families) to help pay for insurance coverage.
• Establish a Guaranteed Access Plan (GAP) by working with governors to develop a model that states could follow to assure high-risk patients have access to health coverage.

Medical Costs

• Allow families to be in charge of what they pay for.
• Encourage greater competition and allow insurers to operate nationwide.
• Require caps on medical malpractice suits.
• Promote market solutions such as walk-in clinics in retail outlets, and shift some care to nurse practitioners since they're less expensive than doctors.
• Require transparency to compare medical outcomes, costs, and prices.
• Individuals need to be more responsible for their own health to help prevent chronic diseases.

Health Savings Accounts

Encourage the availability of health savings accounts.

Drugs: Costs/Importation

• Sen. McCain has not made it clear in his plan where he currently stands on allowing the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices under Medicare Part D (under current law the government is not allowed to do so for Part D).
• Allow consumers to safely import prescription drugs.
• Make generic drugs more readily available.

Drug Safety

• Require that imported prescription drugs be approved for purchase in the U.S. only if they are FDA approved and the exporters are FDA inspected.
• Supported the FDA reform bill that broadened the agency’s regulatory powers.

Electronic Record Keeping/Technology

• Promotes the use of information technology to help lower health care costs.
• According to the McCain web site: "We should promote the rapid deployment of 21st century information systems and technology that allows doctors to practice across state lines."

Medicare/Medicaid

• Reform payment systems in Medicare and Medicaid to pay for diagnosis, prevention and care coordination, not preventable medical errors or mismanagement.
• Sen. McCain has not made it clear in his plan where he currently stands on allowing the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices under Medicare Part D (under current law the government is not allowed to so for Part D).